


One Dream, One Soul

by Anonymous



Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: Cats, F/M, Treat, Witches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-29
Updated: 2017-10-29
Packaged: 2019-01-25 23:41:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12543908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Beverly doesn't believe in magic.





	One Dream, One Soul

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LillyRose](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LillyRose/gifts).



Beverly Crusher did not believe in magic. She was a woman of science, standing on the cutting-edge of knowledge in her field, and ready to take a whetstone in hand whenever necessary. She didn't believe in luck, good or bad. Jack had always carried a lucky stone in his pocket, given to him by his grandfather. When they'd cleaned his body for the funeral, the stone had been given to Beverly with the rest of his uniform. She'd tucked it away in a little box for Wesley, but only as a reminder of his dad. If it had been lucky, he'd have had his dad instead of a rock.

Worf kept his chants low whenever they started out on a new voyage, asking for the favor of the Klingon not-gods for victory in their pursuits. Fine. That made him feel better. Deanna's people practiced a variety of ancestor worship along the same lines, asking the departed to give special dispensation to the living. That gave her a measure of peace. Will prayed. Geordi had a thing about ladders and the number thirteen. Even Jean-Luc avoided black cats.

Beverly herself had no interest in the supernatural.

Then she learned her grandmother, and many of the other women in her family, had been romanced by a spirit who was practically a ghost. She looked more into what she'd considered her grandmother's natural remedies, and found something akin to witchcraft.

Then her son vibrated into a higher plane of existence.

She returned to Caldos for shore leave, and to finish tidying up the family estate. Deanna had offered to go with her. She still viewed Beverly's brief affair with Ronin as an assault, and worried for her friend's emotional state when returning to the location where it happened. Beverly had assured her the offer was appreciated, but she viewed the situation as a consensual if ill-considered mistake. Jean-Luc had offered separately to accompany her, and she'd almost said yes, but the scared part of her heart, the fear that always seemed to chime in whenever circumstances pushed them closer, once again said no. Not yet.

She'd packed up almost all of Nana Felisa's things, what hadn't been given to friends or donated to those who needed them. Among the family heirlooms, none of them any more candles thank you, she found old photographs, a braided and carefully-labeled lock of her mother's soft hair, and a handwritten book with the oddest poems Beverly had ever read. Spells, she thought, in a sad joke to herself. She placed everything away for Wesley, although what use he'd have for them as an extra-dimensional being, she had no idea. She was rather hoping he'd come back to this plane of existence someday and make her a grandmother herself, but that could be centuries from now. She closed the container, sealing it and hoping for the best, whatever the best might be. Then she rested for a while on the porch, watching the sky.

A cat, the color of smoke and shadow, sauntered closer to her as she sat, making itself known by the deep purr in its throat. Beverly waited, letting it get close before she offered a friendly hand and a pat.

"Hello, there," she said.

The cat looked at her. "Hello, Beverly," it said, and whisked its tail.

And it dawned on Beverly that while she didn't believe in magic, it was possible magic believed in her.


End file.
